I have been using Phoca Gallery for two years now and have been loving it. As a novice I found it easy to install and configure the way I wanted it to look. I just have one major problem, I use xmap as a sitemap and there are no xmap extension for Phoca Gallery. Google is currently not picking up my more than 9000 images. It would have been an even greater product if I could add a sitemap.

Apart from that problem - I would always highly recommend Phoca Gallery.

Owner's reply:
Hi, thank you very much for your review, please try to ask in phoca forum, I think, there was some xmap extension for Phoca Gallery :idea:

After many hours of going through the extension's documentation, code and settings I finally managed to configure it the way I wanted it to look. And it wasn't anything fancy! That's not a good sign at all. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. This made me never want to use Phoca Gallery again.

- The settings are not described precisely enough (few simple images cold help a lot in understanding which setting does what exactly).

- Adding multiples photos to gallery is not intuitive at all.

- If there's a larger amount of images, there's no simple way of telling which were added last.

- Whole layout of gallery crashes when trying to switch through several gallery templates (for example, icons from the previous one appear on the current).

- Explaining how to use this gallery to a client, who isn't exactly a computer geek is like trying to learn a monkey how to read.

Owner's reply:
Hi,

if you get some problem just ask here:

http://www.phoca.cz/forum - maybe this can save you some minuts/hours

To get information from documentation, visit:
http://www.phoca.cz/documents/14-phoca-gallery-plugin/58-displaying-phoca-gallery-plugin

To see it live in examples, go to:
http://www.phoca.cz/demo/phocagallery-plugin

and other demo sites (there are over 30 exmaples of the using of the plugin and many of using the component)

I will try to answer following issues:

- The settings are not described precisely enough (few simple images cold help a lot in understanding which setting does what exactly)

==> see above - there is a documentation link with all the parameters and there is a link to exapmles (over 30 examples) and of course there is a forum where you can get help

- Adding multiples photos to gallery is not intuitive at all.

==> Not sure, the Multiple Add function was made by community users for quickly adding images to gallery (I think they have selected good way as adding of all possible albums with help of Multiple Add function is really easy and fast - http://www.phoca.cz/documents/2-phoca-gallery-component/8-multiple-adding-images-categories-and-subcategories )

- If there's a larger amount of images, there's no simple way of telling which were added last.

==> every image get timestamp (of course if all images are added at once, then the ordering says simply which image was added as last)

- Whole layout of gallery crashes when trying to switch through several gallery templates (for example, icons from the previous one appear on the current).

==> Not sure what you mean, I don't know any such feature in Phoca Gallery ???

- Explaining how to use this gallery to a client, who isn't exactly a computer geek is like trying to learn a monkey how to read

I was tired with phoca component early, because i was interested in slide show and not photo display individually as displayed in the phoca website. but later i realised there is a plugin also to display the slide show. and finally it worked on first installation itself. My requirement was id wise display of set of images per article and this plugin rocks. Installation is seamless for a noob. no settings need to be done actually. I was shocked to see the plugin in action. It is simple though powerfull and solves my purpose. Cheers to the team ! Keep it up ! Good Work !

1)your site has many extensions consider making all in one also extension

2)your component is extremely difficult to add 500 pics at once ... can't you make it simpler? like {gallery}folder{/gallery}

3)i tried to integrate phoca gallery and simplecaddy and took me 4 hours... the documentation you put is not enough... consider adding a video... it is quite easy though but i needed to find out by my self

5)for this specific you could give a quick install template or even sell it and make quick money out of it... i was ready to pay if someone had it but nobody even bothered to reply to my forum question it s been 3 days now

Owner's reply:
Hi, thank you for your review.

Regarding questions in the forum. See Phoca Forum rules: http://www.phoca.cz/forum/forum-rules.php

1. ... I (developer) need to work in my regular work, need to sleep sometime, etc. Usually I am visiting this forum every second or third day and after my regular work I am answering cca 90 posts at night ... (the same is by moderators or other users, who all are answering posts and helping people for free in their freetime).

(Anyway - It seems, there is nobody in Joomla! world who has answered more questions regarding Joomla! than me, I will sure answer your questions there but please be patient)

Phoca Maps

Free |
Maps & Locations |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

100

67 reviews

Phoca Maps is a Joomla! component. It is a small component which displays Google Maps on your site. This component doesn't include too much of parameters, the idea of using this component is a fast creation of map on your site.
Just go to Extensions » Maps » New, click on Coordinates button, then click on the place in the map you want to display and save it. Finally create menu link to this map.
If you need to set a marker or more markers, just go to Extensions » Markers » New, select map, click on Coordinates button, then click on the place in the map you want the marker will be set. Add description (you can include images too) and save it. Marker will be displayed in the map.
Use Phoca Maps Plugin for displaying map or more maps in the article.
You are able to select or set your own marker icons.
There are two different versions of Phoca Maps:
Phoca Maps 1.0.5 - this version uses Google Maps API 2. If you need functions like GoobleBar, Continuous Zoom, Overview Map Control, then download this version.
Phoca Maps 1.1.0 (2.x for Joomla! 1.6 or 1.7) or any later version - this version uses Google Maps API 3. You need not to create Google Maps API key for your site but some functions are not included (API 3 is still in Google Code Labs - not ready yet). This version is under active development and includes more new features.
Demo (Joomla! 2.5 - custom markers)
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-maps
Demo - KML features:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-maps-kml
Demo - Joomla! 3:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomla3demo/phoca-maps-demo

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Phoca Favicon

Free |
Design |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

100

64 reviews

Phoca Favicon is a Joomla! component. It is a simple component that generates favicon on your Joomla! site. You can change the favicon of your site whenever you like.
Requirements:
- Joomla!1.5, 2.5, 3 (stable or any later version).
- PHP 4.4.1 (or any later version) with GD library (graphics library for thumbnails creation).
Documentation:
http://www.phoca.cz/documentation/category/4-phoca-favicon-component
Frontend Demo:
http://www.phoca.cz/demo/phoca-favicon
Since version 2 (Joomla! 1.7) Favicon can have transparent background
Phoca Favicon and Joomla! 1.7 Demo:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-favicon

Phoca Email

Free |
Email |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

98

6 reviews

Phoca Email is a Joomla! component. It is very simple component with minimum features. There are two ways to use this component:
Phoca Email is used for sending emails from other components like e.g. sending Invoice, Delivery Note or Receipt from VirtueMart component
Phoca Email can be used to quickly send emails from Joomla! administration site.
If Phoca Email is used for sending emails in Joomla! administration, the following features can be select:
Email can be sent to one user, more users (email addresses should be separated by comma) or to selected users which are stored in Joomla!
Pure text or HTML message can be sent (e.g. to use the component as newsletter)
Article can be selected and sent (e.g. to use the component as newsletter)
Phoca Email does not have any user directory, etc. It is really simple component to send emails (not to recive them, etc.). As user directory, the list of stored users in Joomla! can be used.
The only function of this component is to quickly send emails (if it is used in Joomla! administration by itself). This is not email client and should be not used as email client. Please, don't review this component, because e.g. it doesn't recieve emails, or it does not store sent emails, etc.

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Phoca Open Graph

Free |
SEO & Metadata |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

98

6 reviews

Phoca Open Graph Plugin is a Joomla! CMS Plugin. It allows adding of open graph information into site. Such information stored in meta tags can be then automatically displayed on e.g. Facebook while some visitior of the site commented e.g. article.

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Phoca PDF

Free |
Print & PDF |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

96

20 reviews

Phoca PDF is a Joomla! component. It enables you to set and create PDF documents in Joomla!.
The whole Phoca PDF framework contains:
* Phoca PDF component
* Phoca PDF fonts
* Phoca PDF plugins
See more details here:
http://www.phoca.cz/phocapdf
IMPORTANT:
* Phoca PDF requires PHP 5 version installed on your server (because of newest TCPDF library)
* You can set e.g. footer or header information with help of HTML text editor (like FCK, TinyMCE, JCE,...), but be aware because not all HTML tags and attributes, wich an editor produces, are supported in PDF
* HTML code of your documents should be valid
* You can set different parameters for your PDF document, so after setting these parameters you should test creating of your PDF documents because of possible conflicts caused by setting some extra values (e.g. setting of small PDF format x large font size x large line height, etc...)
* You can set different font types for different parts of document (content, header, footer) but be aware, because PDF stores information about font types. UTF-8 fonts are supported and after storing information about all font types the size of PDF document can increase markedly
* CREATING PDF IS NOT SO SMOOTH AS CREATING HTML OUTPUT. PDF DOCUMENT IS NOT RENDERED IF IT DOESN'T GET CORRECTLY CREATED DOCUMENT HEADER. For successfully PDF creating, the site should not render any PHP error messages or any bad encoding characters before rendering PDF. If you get blank page while PDF creating, mostly this is caused by above described problems. In such case try to see your error log or check the encoding of included PHP files.
Joomla! 2.5 Demo:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-pdf

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Phoca Facebook Comments

Free |
Social Comments |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

96

15 reviews

Phoca Facebook Comments Module is a Joomla! module which displays Facebook comments on Joomla! site. Users are able to comment the site on which this module is displayed.
Joomla! 1.5 Demo:
http://www.phoca.cz/news/30-phoca-news/428-phoca-facebook-comments-module-100-beta-released
Joomla! 1.7 Demo:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-facebook-comments
How to moderate comments:
http://www.phoca.cz/documents/62-phoca-facebook-comments-module/425-moderate-facebook-comments

Phoca Maps Plugin

Free |
Maps & Locations |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

93

6 reviews

Phoca Maps Plugin is a Joomla! plugin. With Phoca Maps Plugin you can display one or more than one Google Map on your site (in the article). You can display the map or only link to selected map. When user click on this link, the map will be displayed in Modal Box window or in standard Popup window.

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Phoca Gallery Menu

Free |
Phoca Gallery extensions |
Jan Pavelka

2.53

Score:

93

2 reviews

Phoca Gallery Menu Module is a Joomla! Module which shows a menu (horizontal or vertical) of galleries (categories) from Phoca Gallery component.